Bramhall, Stockport Bronze Age Human Remains and other Features by Patrick Daniel* with contributions from Inés López-Dóriga, Jacqueline I. McKinley and Lorraine Mepham, with illustrations by Ian Atkins Excavation between Poynton and Bramhall in advance of the A6 Manchester Airport Relief Road exposed features containing pottery of Bronze Age appearance and cremated human remains radiocarbon dated to the Middle Bronze Age. These features were found alongside an undated 10.75m-diameter ring gully presumed to be a ceremonial feature of similar date. Other remains included post-medieval ponds and field boundaries. A pit containing a rich archaeobotanical assemblage of seeds of wild plants and rye grains was radiocarbon dated to the late fourteenth–early fifteenth century AD, and provides a regionally rare insight on landuse and crop exploitation during the medieval period. There was no clear evidence of the proposed course of the Manchester–Buxton Roman road, which was thought at the time of fieldwork to possibly pass through the excavation area, although some undated ditches did follow its presumed course. Located both on the interfluve between two water courses and at the interface of the Cheshire Plain and the toe of the Pennines, the ring gully may have been constructed to formalise an important point in the landscape, with its use related to territorial negotiations between different social groups. For Greater Manchester, the results represent a rare example of a lowland Bronze Age ceremonial site excavated to modern standards. The project archive is currently stored at the offices of Wessex Archaeology in Sheffield and will be deposited in due course at Stockport Museum under the accession number STOPM:2015.240. Introduction <A>Patrick Daniel The project and the site <B> In 2015–2016 a programme of archaeological works, comprising watching brief, trench evaluation and strip, map and record excavation, was undertaken along the course of A6 Manchester Airport Relief Road by Wessex Archaeology. The eastern end of the new road corridor lay at Hazel Grove (NGR SJ 93350 85700), from where it followed a bow-shaped course, 12km in length, to its western terminal near Manchester airport (SJ 82050 85620). Excavated remains were chiefly post-medieval in date, and included the former toll house and corn mill at Norbury and relict field boundary ditches. The earliest remains were excavated on land between Bramhall (Stockport) and Poynton (Cheshire) and comprise a ring gully and pits with, variously, pottery of Bronze Age appearance, cremated human remains radiocarbon dated to the Bronze Age and concentrations of heat-affected stone. Some of the pits were found alongside grave-like features; remnants of medieval and post-medieval agriculture were also recorded. It is this portion of the road corridor, referred to hereafter as ‘the Bramhall site’, that forms the subject of this report The Bramhall site occupied 1.7 hectares immediately north of the A5149 Chester Road between Poynton and Bramhall (NGR SJ 90130 83700; Fig. 1). Prior to the road construction, the local ground surface was gently undulating: the highpoint (93.8m OD) lay in the north-east of the site, where the ring gully was located. The underlying geology is mapped as Sandstone of the Chester Formation with * Patrick Daniel (Corresponding author), Senior Officer, Wessex Archaeology, Sheaf Bank Business Park, Prospect Rd, Sheffield, S2 3EN. Email [email protected] Inés López-Dóriga (Environmental Archaeologist), Jacqueline I. McKinley (Principal Osteoarchaeologist), Lorraine Mepham (Senior Post-excavation Manager) Wessex Archaeology J Chester Archaeol Soc new ser XX, 20XX, 00–00 1 P DANIEL WITH I LÓPEZ-DÓRIGA, J I MCKINLEY, L MEPHAM & I ATKINS superficial deposits of Diamicton Till (British Geological Survey online viewer). The land comprised rural fields used for grazing and cultivation. The project archive is currently held at the offices of Wessex Archaeology in Sheffield and will be deposited with Stockport Museums Service under the accession code STOPM:2015.240. Archaeological and historical background <B> This was the only site along the road scheme where clear evidence of prehistoric activity was recorded, although this was a fortuitous discovery, as the purpose of the fieldwork here was to investigate the Roman road linking Buxton and Manchester (Mouchel 2013, 116; UMAU 1996 and 1998), which was thought to cross this part of the road scheme. In the event no direct traces of the road, or any Roman artefactual material, were seen, although some undated ditches at the western end of the site did follow its presumed north-west to south-east course (Fig. 2). Work on the site also sought to expose a house marked as ‘Bowerstumps’ on 18th- and 19th-century maps, although it transpired the structure lay just beyond the available area. With the exception of the proposed course of the Roman road, known sites of archaeological or historical significance within 1km of the excavations are almost entirely of post-medieval date and include, along with the site of ‘Bowerstumps’, a 19th-century brickworks at Poynton, and various structures such as pillboxes and farmhouses. Tithe and early Ordnance Survey mapping show the site subdivided into fields, some of which contained ponds. The proposed course of the Roman road appears on Ordnance Survey maps from the 1870s/80s onwards. The excavation <A> Patrick Daniel Ring gully 9273 <B> Due to the archaeological potential of the site (above) a watching brief was maintained during soil- stripping during the construction of the road and an associated works compound area. A ring gully (9273) was uncovered in the north-eastern corner of the site and coincided with its topographic highpoint. The gully formed a complete circle enclosing an area with an inner diameter of 9.5 m and an average outer diameter of 10.75m (Fig. 3). The gully itself was typically 0.6 m wide but narrowed to just 0.27m on its northern edge. Multiple slots set at one-metre intervals excavated around the circumference revealed a gently sloping cut with a rounded base (Fig.4.2–5) filled with mid-brown sandy silt containing occasional subangular stones and sparse charcoal. Some evidence of recutting was noted along the southern and western edge of the gully. No finds were recovered. Environmental samples taken from the fills of the ring gully supplied no useful information, with plant remains restricted to underground plant parts such as roots and tubers. Ring gully 9273 had been cut by a medieval or post-medieval cultivation furrow and a modern land drain (not illustrated). The whole of the area enclosed by ring gully 9273 was cleaned by hand, with a number of features subsequently investigated. The central feature (9268: 2 x 0.6 x 0.46m) had a ‘U’-shaped profile, flattish base, and an ESE–WNW alignment. It contained three fills; the primary fill, 9270, was a very thin (0.02 m) lens of almost black silt. This was sealed by a heavily bioturbated and fairly loose fill with a high content of redeposited natural: 9275. The upper fill, 9269, was 0.28m deep. A charred tuber and hazel nutshell from fill 9269 were submitted for radiocarbon assay and returned inconsistent medieval and Iron Age dates: cal. AD 1230–1300 and 360–100 cal BC (UBA-34327; 729±28 BP and UBA-34328; 2157±28 BP). Despite its grave-like appearance and position within the ring gully, no bone was present within this feature, which had evidently been disturbed. A further two stakeholes, two postholes and two or three shallow pits also lay within the area enclosed by the ring gully. None contained any artefactual material, although charcoal was noted in one 2 J Chester Archaeol Soc new ser ??, 20??, 00–00 Bramhall, Stockport: Bronze Age Human Remains and other Features posthole (9252: 0.43m dia. x 0.3m). One pit (9250) appeared to be cut by the ring gully, and so would pre-date that feature. Seven sherds (22g) of pottery of likely Bronze Age date and heat-affected stone were excavated from pit 9264 (0.4m dia. x 0.14m deep), which lay 4m south-west of the ring gully. Potential mortuary focus <B> A pit with cremated human bone and a group of five grave-like features lay 20 m south-east of the centre of the ring gully (Fig. 3). The pit (9191: 0.63m dia. x 0.35m; Fig. 4.6) contained three fills: the basal, 9194, was a mid-brown silty sand, overlaid with 9193, a greyish black silty sand containing abundant charcoal and cremated human bone. A deposit of yellowish grey silty sand, 9192, completed the infilling of the pit. A total of 30.6 g of human bone was present, representing the meagre remains of an unsexed individual more than 12 years of age (subadult/adult range). A human bone fragment from fill 9192 returned a radiocarbon date of 1380–1130 cal BC (SUERC-74086; 3011 ± 27) and a hazelnut from fill 9194 dated to 1280–1100 cal. BC (SUERC-74086, 2970±26 BP), indicating a Middle Bronze Age date for the activity overall (see below). No pathological lesions or materials suggestive of pyre goods were observed. The grave-like features (average dimensions 2.36 x 0.66 x 0.23m) lay immediately north-west of the pit and shared an ENE–WSW alignment (Fig. 3 and 4.7–8). Four (9055, 9060, 9062 and 9232) formed a regular arrangement, the fifth (9197) lay a further 3m to the south. Each contained a single fill of brown sandy silt, artefactually sterile in all cases except for the southern outlier, which supplied two flints, one being a Mesolithic microlith (see below). As with the ring gully’s central pit, no bone was recovered from these features despite their grave-like appearance.